Leading Flemish gymnast Nina Derwael, aged 25, has announced the end of her top-level sports career. At the Tokyo Olympics, she won a gold medal on uneven bars. "It can't get any better," explains Derwael. "If I still want to play a significant role at the world championships or the Olympic Games, I have to put even heavier loads on my body for even longer and that’s a risk I don't want to take anymore.’
After an extremely successful career, Nina Derwael is calling it a day. The 2 gold medals at the European Championships in early June are her last sporting achievements.
In 10 years of top-level gymnastics, Derwael collected 11 medals at major championships. She peaked at the Tokyo Olympics. In the summer of 2021, she won gold on uneven bars.
In the same discipline, Derwael also became world champion in 2018 and 2019. She is also a four-time European champion, including once on the beam.
Nina Derwael was also named as Sportswoman of the Year in 2018, 2019 and 2022.
Body is spent
"I achieved what I wanted and could achieve. I was able to prove what I had in me," Nina Derwael says of her career.
‘Until today, it has always been with pleasure that I have been drawn to gymnastics, because I just love it so much and because I had a perspective,’ she continues.
"The European championships in Leipzig was one such goal, although I hadn't dared to count on gold. As a precaution, I had only been able to train doing my exercise fully a few times and was performing purely on experience."
"It made me realise that things can't get any better. If I want to play a significant role at a world championships or the Olympics, I will have to put even heavier loads on my body for even longer ," the Olympic champion, who also suffered quite a few injuries in her career, says.
"It’s not a risk that I want to take any longer. In the past few weeks, my common sense was increasingly saying, 'Hasn't it been enough? Is it worth putting my body on the line?‘’
"To which I finally have to conclude: it's been nice. In fact, it has been very nice."